Aunt with lung and brain cancer.

My aunt was first diagnosed with lung cancer about eight years ago or so. She did have surgery and they got rid of it and she was in remission for about a year or so.  On one of her check ups, they found more cancer of the lung, which just killed me inside. The other day while on a walk with one of my friends, we ran into a friend of ours and her father. The father was talking to me and asking me questions about my family and asking how they were doing and all that good stuff, until he brought up my aunt.  He asked me how she was doing (not to long ago she had a blood clot that was found in her lung), i answered him stating i thought she was doing alright and that i didn't know for sure. He stated that he had heard that she had brain cancer. That was definitly news to me. It just upset me that i had to find out that my aunt, like my second mom, had brain cancer from someone other than my family. My grandma took me to work today and i had asked her if it was true, i got the worst answer ever.....yes. How can one of the greatest people in my life have both lung and brain cancer, it just kills me thinking about it. Basically i was wanting to know, how long does she have left? I am not positive of how far the brain cancer is or the condition of the lung cancer is as of now. Also i was told that she had something wrong with her pancreas. (i hope this makes sense, i tend to make absolutely no sense when i tell stories or forget to tell some important things...if i missed something that doesn't make sense, just let me know :))...Thank you :)

[Dennis MD]

Hi Kelsie.
I understand what you are going through.
There is a possibility that the brain cancer is a metastasis from her lung cancer recurrence.  
There are still many options for your aunt.  Radiation therapy to the brain can be delivered to control the brain cancer.  Additional chemotherapy is also an option for her.  There are many chemotherapy regimens available that can be given.  However, the risks and benefits of these treatment modalities should be thoroughly discussed to your aunt and her family.
Take care.